I've tried the SW34 with Britson and think it works really well. The eq is really strong in the midrange. I luv saturation so maybe not for everyone. SDRR on the glue master setting really does the trick also. So maybe to some overkill, but liking the blend. Try SW34 w/Freeranger the combo works because Freerange doesn't have some of the mid bands and is super clean where the SW isn't.. Anyway my two pennies...!

I just realised that I've been pulling down faders to mix in Ableton, when I should have been trimming gain before track inserts.

Seems like -18 or -20 is a good starting point, yes/no? OK, so...

I'm thinking my options now are either an Ableton "utility" plug on every track, calibrated with pink noise to read -18dbfs on the master... Or... A britson channel on every track, calibrated the same way, *before* importing any audio.

Or would that be a waste of Britson, just to use it as a fancy trim plug?

I'm just reluctant to get into levelling each individual track with Britson for every mix; it doesn't fit well with my current workflow; but if I can use it as a 'set and forget' gain trimmer then I might include it into my mix template.

Apologies if some of my facts are wonky... I'm teaching myself how to do this, bit by bit...

I just realised that I've been pulling down faders to mix in Ableton, when I should have been trimming gain before track inserts.

Seems like -18 or -20 is a good starting point, yes/no? OK, so...

I'm thinking my options now are either an Ableton "utility" plug on every track, calibrated with pink noise to read -18dbfs on the master... Or... A britson channel on every track, calibrated the same way, *before* importing any audio.

Or would that be a waste of Britson, just to use it as a fancy trim plug?

I'm just reluctant to get into levelling each individual track with Britson for every mix; it doesn't fit well with my current workflow; but if I can use it as a 'set and forget' gain trimmer then I might include it into my mix template.

Apologies if some of my facts are wonky... I'm teaching myself how to do this, bit by bit...

You can also use any VU meter to monitor the loudness, and Live's clip volume fader to trim (if you're working with audio files).
Britson has both a VU meter and a gain trim, so it packs all you need to get your levels right. It takes seconds to do so really, and your mixes will hugely benefit from that. You can also check Klanghelm VUMT for that purpose.
Now it depends if you want the console emulation or not ?

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but you're saying I should go through 24+ tracks, find the loudest part of each track, adjust the trim on britson on each track, and that takes seconds? I think that would take many minutes...

I'm happy for the console emulation to be there, it sounds great. I tried it already, and loved the sound, but the balancing seemed really arbitrary to me, and every track responded differently to get a good VU meter reading; so I'm wary if using it all the time because of this.

OK... Here's a different question: my routing in Ableton might be - individual tracks - into groups - into mix busses - to master 2 buss. Now, can I get away with something like this: Ableton gain utility on individual tracks, britson channel on the groups, britson buss on the mix busses and the master 2 buss? So I could calibrate all individual tracks to -18db with a simple gain trim utility, then apply britson channel to the groups. How would you calibrate britson channel on the groups?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me understand... I'm feeling really stupid....!

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but you're saying I should go through 24+ tracks, find the loudest part of each track, adjust the trim on britson on each track, and that takes seconds? I think that would take many minutes...

I'm happy for the console emulation to be there, it sounds great. I tried it already, and loved the sound, but the balancing seemed really arbitrary to me, and every track responded differently to get a good VU meter reading; so I'm wary of using it all the time because of this.

OK... Here's a different question: my routing in Ableton might be - individual tracks - into groups - into mix busses - to master 2 buss. Now, can I get away with something like this: Ableton gain utility on individual tracks, britson channel on the groups, britson buss on the mix busses and the master 2 buss? So I could calibrate all individual tracks to -18db with a simple gain trim utility, then apply britson channel to the groups. How would you calibrate britson channel on the groups?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me understand... I'm feeling really stupid....!

I have mine set to -20 for my 0dbU. And yes I think I usually find the loudest section and average that to to 0 in britson, and I used to adjust the faders if my group instance was too loud or soft, but now I'm just putting a trim before the group instance.

I just realised that I've been pulling down faders to mix in Ableton, when I should have been trimming gain before track inserts.

Seems like -18 or -20 is a good starting point, yes/no? OK, so...

I'm thinking my options now are either an Ableton "utility" plug on every track, calibrated with pink noise to read -18dbfs on the master... Or... A britson channel on every track, calibrated the same way, *before* importing any audio.

Or would that be a waste of Britson, just to use it as a fancy trim plug?

I'm just reluctant to get into levelling each individual track with Britson for every mix; it doesn't fit well with my current workflow; but if I can use it as a 'set and forget' gain trimmer then I might include it into my mix template.

Apologies if some of my facts are wonky... I'm teaching myself how to do this, bit by bit...

Actually yes, britson IS just a glorified trim in a lot of ways. I would recommend getting into gainstaging more, and adapting your workflow to it. Like I said in another post, I set britson on the channels then freeze the tracks down

Gain-stage ideally starts at recording, then it takes seconds per track to do it right. If not, it won't be that time-consuming to "go through 24+ tracks, find the loudest part of each track, adjust the trim on britson on each track". Besides, it'll make mixing so much easier it totally worth it, really ! As you're using Live, I'd use each audio file's Volume fader (in the audio editor, next to Transpose and Tune knobs) to trim, so that you can still use Britson's own Gain knob as an effect.

Keep in mind that a VU won't tell you everything, you still need to watch your peaks : it wouldn't make sense to have hi-hats/shakers at 0VU (no matter how you've decide to calibrate your mixes), it would clip permanently !